Karen Bycroft

Book Karen Bycroft for speaking engagements & events.

Karen Bycroft has 20 years of experience in retailing, primarily in the UK. She has worked for department stores Marks and Spencer and Woolworths, fashion retailers Adams, Sears, and Country Road and DIY retailers Homebase and Jewson. She has held a number of executive roles, operated as a board director and has extensive experience working in senior interim roles, helping to facilitate change in retail organisations.

Her expertise lies in Retail Strategy, Retail Brand Development, Customer Insight, Retail Marketing and Location Planning. She has developed her training and facilitation skills by lecturing at a Business School and being a Program Director for the Australian Centre for Retail Studies. Karen is a strategic, analytical and creative thinker and when combined with her customer focus and retail experience she helps retailers develop, change and communicate their brands. She has experienced a number of major retail change programs as an employee. Karen has excellent interpersonal skills and is known for her ability to influence and inspire people at all levels within an organisation.

As a Specialist Retail Consultant, Karen specialises in helping retail businesses to understand their customers, develop their brand positioning and align their business plans and processes accordingly. Her strength lies in helping retailers through change as she had extensive experience, a strategic and practical approach and an ability to work effectively with people within the organisation. She is passionate about customer focus and developing strong Retail Brands. She brings a very commercial and integrated approach to Retail Marketing and helps businesses develop consistent and commercial marketing plans aligned to their business objectives.

As a Specialist Retail Facilitator, Karen brings her experience as a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University Business School and as a Program Director for the Australian Centre for Retail Studies to her retail training. The programs she has developed are highly relevant, thought provoking and outcome driven. She has helped retail managers, executives, graduates and undergraduates to develop their retail knowledge and skills. Karen is an engaging and involving facilitator and uses her experience to help retailers apply their learning.

Retail Specialist Expertise

Retail Business and Marketing Strategy

Retail Brand Development

Retail Marketing

Customer Insight

Location Planning

Major Assignments

Retail Consultant – Since arriving in Australia Karen has worked as a full time consultant with Country Road to develop a new retail brand, Trenery. Karen has recently completed a 6-month contract for Profiler Careers, a business-coaching organisation where she helped to develop the business and her coaching/mentoring skills.

ACRS Program Director – The Australian Centre for Retail studies specialises in Global Retail Research and Retail Executive Development. Karen has developed and delivered two-day programs in Retail Marketing, Executive Development and Retail Futures